Chapter 293 - 290: Can Only Touch

Chapter 293: Chapter 290: Can Only Touch

In the blink of an eye, another half month passed.

Qitian Animation Company was in full swing with the production of *Cat and Mouse*’s fourth season. They had also completed two seasons of the dialect version. Jiang Xia’s plan was to wait until all three seasons were finished, then package them together and sell them to television stations in the Sichuan and Chongqing provinces to maximize profits.

In reality, the actual recording for the dialect version didn’t take long; most of the time was spent writing the scripts. Even so, their pace was remarkably fast, and the costs were extremely low.

Additionally, the *Slam Dunk* project team had recently been officially established. As soon as word got out that Qitian Animation Company, the studio behind *Cat and Mouse*, was hiring a large number of key animators, animators, cinematographers, and editors, many graduates from prestigious Schools of Fine Arts, drawn by the company’s reputation, came hoping to join.

After all, Qitian Animation was a company that had been around for less than a year, but its potential was astounding. It was in a period of rapid growth with excellent prospects for the future.

Jiang Xia was, of course, well aware of his company’s advantages. To attract sufficiently talented people, he had even thoughtfully equipped the new office with a boba tea room and a small gym. Upholding the principle that "the body is the foundation of everything," he did his utmost to provide employees with a spacious and comfortable work environment.

When they were tired from work, they could rest in the massage chairs. If they lacked creative inspiration, they could pet the office cats and dogs. If they were feeling unwell, they could exercise in the gym, and if they got hungry, there was free afternoon tea.

Even newly graduated artists could work, live, and learn alongside a group of seniors, rapidly improving their skills and making great strides in their careers.

It had to be said that for a company registered just this year, Qitian Animation’s employee benefits were exceptionally generous. This showed that Qitian Animation genuinely saw its employees as people, rather than being an exploitative company that only knew how to squeeze them dry.

Now, the *Slam Dunk* project team was mostly assembled. Jiang Xia, as chief director, executive producer, and head writer, officially kicked off production on *Slam Dunk* after a series of meetings and discussions.

Jiang Xia had been looking forward to this day for a long time.

In the half-year-plus period from *Cat and Mouse* to *Slam Dunk*, he finally felt he had what it took to tackle the challenge of a long-form, action-packed animated series.

The entire project team had five production units, meaning five episodes were in production simultaneously. The production schedules for each episode were staggered by one week. At a rate of one episode per unit per month, they could guarantee weekly deliveries, and even have a surplus.

However, that was in an ideal world. In reality, the day before a deadline, the entire studio was still pulling all-nighters, working overtime on production.

But to be on the safe side, they would typically produce a backlog of about five episodes before the official premiere. This was a risk management measure to deal with any unexpected situations that might arise during production.

According to his projections, the first episode of *Slam Dunk* was scheduled to officially air around March, after the New Year. Factoring out the initial settling-in period and all the preliminary prep work, the current schedule was extremely tight.

So, Jiang Xia was holed up at the company almost every day drawing storyboards. He barely had any time to study, and still had to make time for directorial meetings and to guide Wang Ming on the storyboards for *Cat and Mouse*. His relentless grind was enough to frighten even the other artists at the company.

「December 31st, the last day of 2009.」

Lin Yanwan forced Jiang Xia to take a day off to rest. She was terrified that he would suddenly drop dead from overwork one day.

"You’re not going anywhere today, especially not the office! You are going to stay right here at home and rest!" she said sternly, refusing to let Jiang Xia get out of bed.

Listening to the wind and snow outside, Jiang Xia said with resignation, "But I’m not tired."

"You have to rest even if you’re not tired! Who else works themselves to death like you do? Are you trying to die young?" Lin Yanwan retorted.

His eye twitched. "Dying young is a bit of an exaggeration, honey. I know my limits."

"Like hell you do," Lin Yanwan pouted. ’All he ever thinks about is work. He gets off at one or two in the morning every day, collapses into bed the moment he’s home, and now he barely even has time to hold me.’

’And he still talks about scoring higher than me on the exams so he can use a condom? In his current state, she could give him a half-hour head start and still win for sure.’

’If she’d known he’d get this exhausted, she never would have let him take on two projects at once. It would have been so much better if he had just stuck to *Cat and Mouse*.’

"In any case, you’re staying home to rest today, and that’s final. If you’re not back in shape tomorrow, I’ll just keep calling in sick for you!" she huffed.

Jiang Xia sighed softly. "Alright, you’re the boss."

He closed his eyes, momentarily pushing work from his mind, and turned to wrap his arms around his wife’s soft body.

"You haven’t spent any time with me in so long," Lin Yanwan whispered, stroking his hand.

Jiang Xia stiffened. He had indeed been so busy with preparations for the *Slam Dunk* project team that he had no time to spend with his wife. He had neglected her.

"I’m sorry, baby," he admitted.

"You have nothing to be sorry to me for," Lin Yanwan murmured, pouting slightly and feeling inexplicably wronged.

’Even though she knew he was doing it for his career, she just hated seeing him neglect his health like this. It reminded her of the times in the past when, after they fought, Jiang Xia would also stay at the studio day and night without coming home.’

Jiang Xia held her tighter. "Okay, okay, I’m not going anywhere today. I’ll be sure to spend lots of time with you."

"What good is just one day? You’ll just go back to how you were tomorrow. Just think about how you treated me before. I’m talking about in our past life."

’Past life...’

The dead memories suddenly began to assault him.

Jiang Xia drew in a sharp breath. He couldn’t let them fall back into their old ways. In this life, he would treat her right.

"I won’t. I promise you," he said softly.

"I don’t believe you!"

"Starting tomorrow, I’ll keep normal work hours. I’ll rest when it’s time to rest. You’re the most important person in the world to me."

"Really?" Lin Yanwan turned to look at him.

"Every word I say while I’m holding you is true," Jiang Xia said earnestly.

Lin Yanwan leaned in and kissed him. "It’s not that I don’t want you to work overtime... I just wish you knew your limits. But you can’t control yourself, so I had to resort to a zero-tolerance policy."

"Alright, I get it. Don’t be mad, honey. I won’t pull any more late-night overtime," Jiang Xia said, nuzzling against her gently.

"Honey, since you’re not working today, I want to sleep in your arms for a little while longer before we get up," Lin Yanwan said with a pout.

"Forget a little while. We can sleep until the end of time."

Jiang Xia smiled faintly. Holding her soft body, he closed his eyes as well, resting his head in the crook of her neck and drifting off to sleep while breathing in her scent.

A moment later, blushing, Lin Yanwan gently took his hand and guided it inside her clothes. Her voice trembled slightly, her eyelashes fluttering uncontrollably.

"Honey... today I’ll let you be a little more daring with me... but only touching..."